China’s Xi to meet India’s Modi in China this week

The announcement of the informal meeting was made by the Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, after talks with visiting Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, Xinhua said.

While relations between China and India have been strained in recent years, with disputes over issues including their disputed border with Tibet, Modi has sought to re-set ties.

Modi will visit China again in June for a summit of the China and Russia-led security grouping, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

The Asian giants were locked in a 73-day military stand-off in a remote, high-altitude stretch of their disputed border last year, with soldiers from the two sides throwing punches and stones at each other at one point,.

The confrontation between the nuclear-armed powers in the Himalayas underscored Indian alarm at China’s expanding security and economic links in South Asia.